1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data update. More particularly, the present invention relates to a Firmware Over-The-Air (FOTA) based data update method that enables a mobile terminal to stably update boot related files in a FOTA environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Because of rapid advances in technology, in contrast to early mobile terminals which support simple functions related to voice calls and short text messages, modern mobile terminals support various functions related to video calls, electronic organizers, and Internet access. In general, if a mobile terminal supports a user function, proper data update is needed to solve problems or resolve inconveniences during usage of the user function.
To fix an error or to install a new function, the user of a mobile terminal may be required to connect to a server providing binary updates via a Personal Computer (PC). However, this process of connecting the mobile terminal to the PC, accessing the server and performing data update may impose a heavy burden on the user. Moreover, most users may not be sufficiently knowledgeable to perform the necessary updates. To solve these problems, terminal manufacturers may adopt Firmware Over-The-Air (FOTA) technology to provide functional upgrade data to mobile terminals.
In FOTA technology, the bootloader has to load the update engine. Hence, it may be impossible to update the bootloader area. Or, although it may be possible to update the bootloader area, if an error occurs in the bootloader area during boot related data update, error recovery may be not possible. As the bootloader is loaded before the update engine in existing FOTA technology, update of boot related data may be not properly performed. Hence, the existing FOTA technology may deliver only user function related data (i.e., data which is unrelated to boot related files).